Day is So Long and the Wages So Small

In the summer of 1958 Samuel Charters and Ann Danberg travelled to Andros, an 'island on the wrong side of the wind' in the Bahamas. They were drawn to this remote location by a song, so rich and startling in its resonance that they followed it to its source.

In The Day is So Long and the Wages So Small Charters recalls the unique experience of this incredible summer. Living within the small yet vital community descended from a handful of Bahamian slaves, Charters and Danberg discovered the pleasures and the harsh realities of island life.

They also found that the historical fusion of disparate cultures on Andros, from Africa and Europe, had resulted in a rich, distinctive musical confluence that stubbornly resisted the influx of modern styles. The invaluable recordings they made that summer introduced the world to the guitar music of Joseph Spence, the ballads and 'rhyming' songs of John Roberts and Frederick McQueen, and a wealth of traditional Bahamian music.

Now in his seventies, Sam Charters is a jazz expert with over 11 books on jazz to his name. His 1959 book The Country Blues was the first serious examination of this seedbed of virtually all American music. He followed this book with The Legacy of the Blues and The Roots of the Blues (all Marion Boyars publications).